True, but there may be more of a market to milk the type of person that can afford a $3000+ monitor-less Mac Pro...
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Graphics Cards in New Mac Pro May Be User Replaceable
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True, but there may be more of a market to milk the type of person that can afford a $3000+ monitor-less Mac Pro...
User-replaceable graphics card is always a good idea. 3rd party graphics card, not so much. The whole point of having a separate daughter board for the graphics processing allows for slagged GPUs to be replaced. The whole point in having set components for a system is to simplify the drivers as well as have the entire machine function together smoothly without hiccups. It also makes replacement faster and easier for service. The connectors should be proprietary connectors since the performance is higher than most other systems.
I also notice that a couple of those things can be combined, leaving only 4 things left.
And even then, it doesn't really matter as it's a desktop.
Finally, You can get a dock that supports most, if not all, of those things at once.
Exactly. Not much use with a replaceable part when the cooling aspect is proprietary.
Totally agree this is a typical crazy Jobs design that hardly anyone likes when it first comes out but somehow then becomes popular
Of course if they're not replaceable this might help get us some decent Thunderbolt solutions, if not just expansion chassis that work, assuming a lot of the reduced bandwidth could be overcome with lots of RAM or the card or what have you.
THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME SPIT MY DRINK OUT! LMAO
Now I can't stop hiccuping. That was my first criticism of the new Mac Pro and people here laughed at me!
You pointed out what I meant months ago in a great picture.
ThunderBolt is fantastic, but I don't want to have to buy a new computer table for all the devices I have to add to this machine to make it comparable to my old Mac Pro which can be upgraded with various graphics cards and SSD drives internally in one piece.
How can a PRO machine NOT have internal user expansion?
Somewhere Steve Wozniak is just shaking his head.
I predict different people will buy the new Mac Pro than the previous Mac Pro.
But I will admit, the new Mac Pro would make for a small wicked fast tricked out gamers machine, but I don't think at that price it will fly.
I predict prices on Ebay for the last generation Mac Pros will escalate after the new one is released because you can get multiple faster graphics cards for those Pros in many ways, even outside of Apple.
It's funny that some people in this thread actually thinks this means they'll be able to upgrade their GPUs to something better down the line. All this means is that there's a chance that if you take it into an Apple store that they'll be able to replace a broken GPU with the exact same thing. It's not like you're going to be able to hop on newegg and order 3rd party versions of these things, lol.
Plus, I'd bet anything that the majority of Mac Pro users work for companies that buy these things for them. Companies like that don't bother upgrading computers. They replace them.
Plus, I'd bet anything that the majority of Mac Pro users work for companies that buy these things for them. Companies like that don't bother upgrading computers. They replace them.
I was wondering about this, but I figured it was Apple
so, probably no deal.
The way they designed this thing reminds me of the Zenith TVs of the 80s where they had several boards which could be quickly replaced (or in this case, upgraded). Such work was done to allow repairs to be done after a renewed unit was given back to the owner within 30 minutes.
The way they designed this thing reminds me of the Zenith TVs of the 80s where they had several boards which could be quickly replaced (or in this case, upgraded). Such work was done to allow repairs to be done after a renewed unit was given back to the owner within 30 minutes.
Various companies have been working on external PCIe graphics cards for years (albeit using either proprietary connectors or Semi standard PCIexpress cables). having a noisy box with a power cable running to it is not an ideal solution outside of a docking scenario for a laptop that is otherwise mobile.
That said, the major challenge has always been bandwidth. Even with the new 20gbps thunderbolt, it is not even close to an x8 PCIe 3.0 connection, it's more like x2/x4 PCIe 2.0 depending on the implementation of thunderbolt. For a mid range care it would work, but not for a high end GPU.
If this were to be true, I would be first in line! All I want is that sleek aluminium enclosure
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It's not... There's a switch on the back to open it up so you can replace the RAM-and therefore maybe the GPU as well
The design of the new Mac Pro sort of says such a box need not be noisy, right?
I'm not sure the bandwidth is as much a limiting factor as people think, but I'd like to see some figures. This site http://www.tested.com/tech/457440-theoretical-vs-actual-bandwidth-pci-express-and-thunderbolt/ claims even the fastest GPUs are just fine on a PCIe 2.0 x8 slot. Even if you lost 15% of the performance of a 7970 or something it still might be a worthwhile upgrade.
Also- I wonder if it might be possible to use more than one Thunderbolt 2 port for this? Maybe in a Crossfire type of arrangement with two GPUs (though unless it were supported by Apple and AMD the software support might be the problem).
This is actually pretty old news.
It was reported not long after the sneak peak at WWDC, that a leaked beta service document, highlighted the fact that the GPU's were on a daughter card, and were certainly replaceable. However they are listed as a warranty / Apple-Serviceable item, and not user-serviceable.
The leaked document was legitimate, given the in-depth diagrams and information pertaining to the new Mac Pro.
I would also hazard a guess and say that the nMP has been fundamentally ready since WWDC, and has only been awaiting the full availability of the CPU's, GPU's and Thunderbolt 2 controllers. I say this because of how complete the service document already was, way back at WWDC.
Scott
It was reported not long after the sneak peak at WWDC, that a leaked beta service document, highlighted the fact that the GPU's were on a daughter card, and were certainly replaceable. However they are listed as a warranty / Apple-Serviceable item, and not user-serviceable.
The leaked document was legitimate, given the in-depth diagrams and information pertaining to the new Mac Pro.
I would also hazard a guess and say that the nMP has been fundamentally ready since WWDC, and has only been awaiting the full availability of the CPU's, GPU's and Thunderbolt 2 controllers. I say this because of how complete the service document already was, way back at WWDC.
Scott
ultimately there probably will be on big box about the size of the old mac pro with everything that this one misses connected to it via a single thunderbolt. It will probably be about 1500$.
Sonnet is already starting the trend with thing like this
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpressiii.html
or this
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15thunderboltdock.html
also there's one real upside to this new macpro, it's that a good machine for performance video artist who need a lot of screens and for whom a laptop doesn't have enough output, they can carry this on tour far more easily. I toured with the old mac pro model (for a sound installation) and it's a pain in the ass to carry around.
for everything live that doesn't require a supercharged cpu or a lot of video out a beefed up mac mini is the way to go
The thing is Apple doesn't want for this to be possible, so there probably won't be a simple consumer external thunderbolt GPU solution, except for dedicated pro solution.The design of the new Mac Pro sort of says such a box need not be noisy, right?
I'm not sure the bandwidth is as much a limiting factor as people think, but I'd like to see some figures. This site http://www.tested.com/tech/457440-theoretical-vs-actual-bandwidth-pci-express-and-thunderbolt/ claims even the fastest GPUs are just fine on a PCIe 2.0 x8 slot. Even if you lost 15% of the performance of a 7970 or something it still might be a worthwhile upgrade.
Also- I wonder if it might be possible to use more than one Thunderbolt 2 port for this? Maybe in a Crossfire type of arrangement with two GPUs (though unless it were supported by Apple and AMD the software support might be the problem).
Workaround have been found using thunderbolt to expresscard, then expresscard to PCIe adaptor, but it's not really consumer ready (and expresscard is only 5 Gbps).
One example here:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...harges-macbook-air-graphics-performance-by-7x
Maybe that's something for the future then But I think it would always be better than to have a proprietary GPU for the Mac Pro only. Imagine if you could use the same GPU for your MacBook Pro and your Mac Pro and a PC. It would be like an external hard drive, compatible with pretty much everything. It would drive the price down really quickly and offer way more choice. If only they could figure out the cables
Why upgrade the card?
For all of you who want replaceable graphic cards I have a question: What do you do with your Mac Pro and why are these cards limiting what you can do?
Also you do know that when you replace the video card with a third party card all of the OpenCL based apps will revert to using the CPU because I seriously double any third party graphic card maker will write an entire OpenCL implementationBut again, my question is what are you doing with the Mac that makes you want to update the graphic card.
For all of you who want replaceable graphic cards I have a question: What do you do with your Mac Pro and why are these cards limiting what you can do?
Also you do know that when you replace the video card with a third party card all of the OpenCL based apps will revert to using the CPU because I seriously double any third party graphic card maker will write an entire OpenCL implementationBut again, my question is what are you doing with the Mac that makes you want to update the graphic card.
It's a wait and see scenario. Pricing will play a big role and how the market responds in sales to the new Mac Pro. The $3000 base new Mac Pro received comments from some users that the price was too high and beyond their budget since your spending does not stop there.
Maybe Nvidia or AMD will also do a R&D on the cost of manufacturing the graphic cards before they go for it.
Maybe Nvidia or AMD will also do a R&D on the cost of manufacturing the graphic cards before they go for it.
The only people post this played out image are dinosaurs. Network storage is way more useful than in the Box. Stick them int your machine room, garage, cupboard and anyone can access them via thunderbolt.
and it's so wrong on all counts:
2 Drives...why?
Why the 3 breakout boxes? They need to be on the 2012 image too.
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Er... no you can't. Not at reasonable price. This is not a frickin' games machine. It's to do work and make money.
But I do see the point of having a mid range version and perhaps that will happen.
OK... I have worked as a freelancer in scores of places in London that run MacPro's 90% of them have Stock RAM, and the most basic video cards. These, by all accounts will run crazy fast with the right software.
I even have a ebay bought hacked ROM Nvidia card in my Pro and while it's Very fast... this thing is looking about 8 time faster on the graphics side.
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Hi, You got a link to that, would be great to see it. It's been the biggest question for most Graphics Pros since WWDC.
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There has been some talk about this on the RED forum. You can channel Bond The TB2 Connection and get Very nice Speed for the RED ROCKET X card. I am sure it will come. But I do agree, Apple could have Shut up everyone if they'd stuck a PCIE3 port on it.